VIS REPORT - The Holy Father appointed Fr. Carlos Manuel Escribano Subias, pastor and episcopal vicar in Zaragoza, Spain, as bishop of Teruel y Albarracin (area 11,867, population 94,150, Catholics 90,375, priests 128, religious 146), Spain. The bishop-elect was born in Carballo, Spain in 1964 and ordained a priest in 1996.

ASIAPAKISTAN: 2 CHRISTIAN BROTHERS MURDERED FOR BLASPHEMY OF ISLAM
Asia News report: At 8 this morning the community bid a final farewell to Sajid and Rashid Emmanuel. Their murder has sparked violent clashes between Christians and Muslims. The police are patrolling the streets but the situation is "explosive." Catholic activist: "renewed commitment to cancellation of discriminatory laws." Christian couple threatened with death for a documentary on Gojra.

Faisalabad (AsiaNews) – The funeral of Rashid Emmanuel, a 36 year-old pastor, and Sajid Masih Emmanuel, 30, shot to death yesterday, were held this morning at 8 am in Faisalabad. The two Christian brothers were executed outside the court, after the hearing of the trial that saw them charged with blasphemy, a charge from which they were about to be acquitted. The murders have sparked violent clashes between Christians and Muslims in the suburbs of Warispura and Dawoodnagar and tension remains high. Meanwhile, the Catholic Churches National Commission for Justice and Peace (Ncjp) redoubles its fight for the abolition of the blasphemy law and called today for a series of meetings in various cities throughout Pakistan.
Local sources report that a "state of emergency" is in force in Faisalabad in a bid to stem sectarian violence. Christians are "outraged", tension remains high and the situation is "explosive”. The ARY TV correspondent in the city reports that "the reality is very similar to Gojra" and, if appropriate measures are not taken, a massacre could be repeated. The facts of Gojra (and Koriyan) are linked to another charge of blasphemy. On July 30, 2009 thousands of Islamic fundamentalists stormed the village of Koriyan, burning 51 Christian homes. On August 1, at least 3 thousand extremists targeted the Christian community in Gojra, burning seven people alive (including two children and three women), wounding 19 and burning hundreds of homes.
At dawn the bodies of two Christian brothers left the Allied Hospital Faisalabad, where an autopsy was performed. The funeral took place at 8 am, in the presence of representatives of the Christian community and human rights activists. The murder of Sajid and Rashid outside the court recalls the murder of Manzoor Masih, a Christian accused of blasphemy who was shot dead near the court in Gujranwala, 5 April 1994.
For the past two years Sajid and Rashid Emmanuel had been leaders of the "United Ministries Pakistan" in Daudnagar, near the Christian colony of Wareispura. They were accused of blasphemy after a Muslim, Khurram Shahzad, reported to police that they had distributed leaflets slanderous of the prophet Muhammad. In fact, the police were set to exonerate the two brothers because the handwriting examination by the prosecution found the signatures on the leaflets did not coincide with those of the two brothers.
The infamous blasphemy law - introduced by the Pakistani dictator Zia ul-Haq in 1986 – once again became an excuse to carry out executions. Peter Jacob, executive secretary of the Catholic Churches National Commission for Justice and Peace (Ncjp) renewed his appeal through AsiaNews for the repeal of the rule "that continues to cause innocent victims. "Yesterday there were violent clashes" confirms the activist and the police "are patrolling roads and properties to avoid further incidents." One Christian was wounded in the clashes and there are unconfirmed reports of the death of a third Christian.
The Executive Secretary of Ncjp speaks of "spontaneous reactions" to the murder of two brothers by the Christian community. The demonstrations, however, triggered the reaction of Muslims, incited by the imams of mosques in the city. Local sources state that homes and "popular shops” were attacked in an attempt to cripple the livelihoods of Christians.
Peter Jacob points out that yesterday's murders "require renewed commitment to the cancellation of all discriminatory". He adds that "it is necessary to convince government and public opinion that these rules are dangerous, first of all, for the very survival of Pakistan." Today at 5 pm, concludes the activist in various cities across the country including in Lahore and Karachi "public meetings will be held to discuss the murder of these two Christians and steps to take in the fight against blasphemy”.
Meanwhile death threats against a Christian couple, who produced a documentary on violence in Gojra in August 2009 continue. Nosheen and Leonard D'Souza, along with Professor Anjum James Paul, have produced a report entitled "Burned alive: the fate of Christians in Pakistan", triggering the reaction of Muslim fundamentalists. The couple also founded an association - the South Asian Research and Resource Center, www.sarrcpk.org - in defence of human rights, denouncing persecution and suffering of minorities in Pakistan.
The documentary on the tragic events of Gojra, divided into two parts, is available on YouTube at the links below:
1) www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvyy6K6dPUA
2) www.youtube.com/watch?v=moDbIWYMaQ4http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Faisalabad,-murdered-brothers-buried.-Justice-and-Peace:-abolish-the-blasphemy-law-now-18982.html

ASIACHINA: CATHOLIC COMMUNITIES FLOODED BY RAINS IN NEED OF AID

UCAN report: Catholic communities are once again having to pull together and support each other as more torrential rains flood China’s Sichuan province.

The Liduba Church and nearby houses in Nanchong diocese have been engulfed by flood water. Around 3,000 Catholics and other citizens had to be evacuated to higher ground on July 18.
In the same diocese, the flood waters reached as high as the second floor of the five-story Quxian Church.
“I have had to take shelter at a parishioner’s home,” said Father Chen Xihong. “It’s like being on an isolated island. No one expected the flooding to be this serious, so we left all our possessions behind, including my vessels and kit for saying Mass.”
The province is without electricity, gas and fresh water and the threat of malaria is growing, as the waters recede slowly and mosquitoes multiply.
This is the latest in a succession of natural disasters to strike southwestern China, including a deadly 8.0-magnitude earthquake which devastated Sichuan in 2008.

“The Catholics who suffered trauma in that earthquake survived through their faith in God,” said Father Chen. “Now they face losing their homes again, Catholics in the temporary shelters have gathered together to pray again for God’s help.”
Church workers in Nanchong city say they hope to bring relief supplies to Father Chen and his parishioners in the next few days.
In another show of Catholic solidarity, Christ the King Church and Rosary Church in Fujian, eastern China, have raised around 16,000 yuan (US$2,300) through the sale of 200 Chinese artworks (PICTURED), to help flood victims in the north of the province.http://www.ucanews.com/2010/07/20/chinese-catholics-washed-out-by-new-floods/

WORLDSPAIN: WORLD CUP COACH BOSQUE HELPS DOWN´S SON TO HOLD CUP

CNA report- The coach of Spain’s world champion soccer team, Vicente del Bosque, is a man of few words and gestures. However, last week he experienced one of the most emotional moments of his life when he fulfilled the dream of his 21 year-old son Alvaro, who suffers from Down’s Syndrome, by allowing him to hold up the World Cup trophy to the applause of the team.

“My son changed my life,” Del Bosque has said on more than one occasion. Alvaro is his second son, and Del Bosque learned that he had Down’s Syndrome several weeks after his birth. “At first we cried a lot,” he told author Gemma Herrero for her book, “39 Stories of Solidarity Surrounding Sports,” but he added, “Now when I look back I think, we were so foolish.”
Del Bosque has been married to his wife Trini for 30 years, and they have three children: Vicente, 23, Alvaro, 21 and Gemma, 17. Having a son with Down’s Syndrome was a trial that prepared the soccer coach to face any difficult challenge, including the last minutes of the World Cup final. Alvaro has inherited the love of soccer from his father. He is a huge fan and has even questioned his dad’s coaching decisions.
He welcomed his victorious father home from South Africa with the rest of the team. A few months ago, he made his dad promise that he would let him be in the victory parade in Madrid if the team won. Del Bosque kept his promise.http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/spanish-soccer-coach-fulfills-wish-for-downs-syndrome-son/
image http://www.1000goals.com/del-bosque-in-my-time-a-spanish-side-never-felt-so-uncomfortable

AMERICAUSA: SPECIAL BLESSING FOR ARTHRITIS SUFFERERS ON FEAST OF ST. ALPHONSUS

Redemptorists.org report: Blessing of the Arthritics

Sunday, August 1, 2010
Feast Day of St. Alphonsus Liguori, Founder of the Redemptorists and Patron Saint of Arthritics

On Sunday, August 1, the feast day of St. Alphonsus Liguori, our founder, Redemptorist parishes around the country will be offering a special blessing through his intercession for those suffering from arthritis and other serious physical afflictions.

The blessings will be offered after each and every Mass. Prayer cards to St. Alphonsus will also be distributed.

There will be a short prayer after every Mass to ask the intercession of St. Alphonsus, who himself suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis that left him permanently bent forward and wheelchair bound. After the general prayer, individual blessings will be offered to anyone who wishes.

If you cannot attend the "Blessing" events (either because you cannot travel or because there is no Redemptorist parish in your diocese) but would still like to receive a prayer card, you can go to http://www.redemptoristsdenver.org/ to download a copy of the prayer or call the development office at 303-565-5450 to request a copy.

Catholic Grandparents Association report: Grandmothers and grandfathers from all over the United Kingdom will converge on the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham next weekend for the ninth annual National Grandparents’ Pilgrimage.

The Pilgrimage on Saturday, July 24th, will be “a family day of faith and fun – and an opportunity to celebrate grandparents everywhere, right back to St Joachim and St Anne, the grandparents of Jesus.”
Monday next, July 26th, if the Feast Day of St Joachim and St Anne, and Pilgrimage organiser Catherine Wiley says “there has never been a more important time for grandparents in the church.”
Mrs Wiley is the founder of the Catholic Grandparents Association, which has begun to flourish in her native Ireland and she adds: “With so many families experiencing difficulties and break-up, grandparents often play a crucial role. Their relationship with their grandchildren is one of unconditional love.
“This Pilgrimage helps grandparents in their efforts to pass on the Catholic faith to their grandchildren.
“It also supports them in their own faith and helps them address sensitive issues regarding faith in these days of broken and fragmented families.
“It will also honour all grandparents alive and dead for all they have done down through the ages in the transmission of the faith.”
The Pilgrimage will be led by Fr Alan Williams, Director, Shrine of Our Lady, Walsingham, and is expected to attract an attendance in excess of 1,000.
It will start at 12noon with a Pilgrimage Mass, and will feature a reflection by Mrs Wiley; liturgy by grandchildren; crowning of Our Lady’s Statue with flowers; and fun events including funfair, bouncing castles, clowns, games, and climbing wall.
Walsingham Choir will provide music and song. More details on SOURCEhttp://www.catholicgrandparentsassociation.com/

AFRICA
ETHIOPIA: AGREEMENT TO WORK FOR PEACE AND AGAINST POVERTY

Agenzia Fides report: Protocol of agreement for cooperation between the Community of S. Egidio and the Commission of the African Union was signed on Thursday 15 July at the African Union head offices in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). According to a statement sent to Fides, the agreement confirms and consolidates collaboration which has united these two organisations for years, particularly in the areas of peace making and the fight against poverty. Since the African Union's constitution, as an official Observer S. Egidio has participated at AU summit meetings. The agreement recognises the important part played by the Community of S. Egidio in promoting peace and dialogue in Africa.

Jean Ping - President of the Union African Commission - during the signing ceremony, said he was happy "to have the Community of S. Egidio as a partner" on the continent. He emphasised the positive role in mediation played in recent years by S. Egidio (starting with Mozambique and more recently an agreement reached for Guinea Conakry) and which it continues to play in many situations of crisis. Ping said: “S. Egidio has one thing at heart, the good of the poor and good of Africa: it is a resource for the continent ”. The AU President continued, indicating other areas for possible common intervention in the future.

The agreement reached between the AU and S. Egidio includes: extensive collaboration in the promotion of peace and stability in Africa, in the prevention and mediation of conflict, by means of the conferral of the status of facilitator and the faculty to act as co-mediators. Promotion of joint initiatives to confirm the untouchable respect for life and for the human person, human dignity and human rights and the human rights in Africa. Collaboration in intercultural and interreligious dialogue in Africa. During the meeting, the S. Egidio Community illustrated the positive results of its programmes initiated in Africa to fight AIDS (DREAM) and for civil registration (BRAVO!). http://www.fides.org/aree/news/newsdet.php?idnews=27116&lan=eng

AUSTRALIAFR. STAN FORTUNA SPEAKS AT PRAY 2010 IN BRISBANE

Cath News report: "Did you ever meet Pope John Paul?" Father Stan Fortuna was asked at Pray 2010 following one of his morning keynote addresses, when we heard him speak with admiration of his "hero" and "mentor".

Before you can say "Fr Stan's a rapping priest from New York city", he reveals his "passport" - a photo of him meeting Pope John Paul II and on the flipside, yet another with Pope Benedict XVI.

"I told the Holy Father, 'You are my hero and I am your ambassador for the new culture of the streets of New York'," Fr Stan said of that encounter with Pope John Paul.

It was a moment Franciscan Father of the Renewal Stan Fortuna literally takes with him everywhere he goes.

"Pope John Paul is my mentor and has been even more so since he passed on. When they say to me at airports, 'So you're a priest' I show them my passport (the photos)."

Known for his engaging style and popular at Pray 2010 for his workshops and presentations focused on young people, Fr Stan also reveals a large insert folder complete with the writings of various saints and popes.
"I'm a wolf with a ravenous appetite," he said. "For everything, especially food ... but sometimes I add too much garlic."
Enigmatic Fr Stan implied a double meaning in that statement, recognising that sometimes his message "is full on".
"Sometimes I see people thinking, 'I can't believe he just did that'," Fr Stan said of speaking worldwide about faith and creating that "new culture" promised to Pope John Paul.
"The whole concept of the civilisation of love (or the 'new culture') is about a new humanism with dignity and respect for everybody," Fr Stan said.
"It's about using the arts and using everything including the skills people have to make a contribution to building up this new culture. http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=22439

TODAY´S SAINT

St. Margaret of Antioch

VIRGIN AND MARTYR
Feast: July 20
Born: Antioch (in Pisidia)
Died: 304
Patron of: childbirth, pregnant women, dying people, kidney disease, peasants, exiles, falsely accused people; nurses
Virgin and martyr; belonged to Pisidian Antioch in Asia Minor, where her father was a pagan priest. Her mother dying soon after her birth, Margaret was nursed by a pious woman five or six leagues from Antioch. Having embraced Christianity and consecrated her virginity to God, she was disowned by her father and adopted by her nurse.

While she was one day engaged in watching the flocks of her mistress, a lustful Roman prefect named Olybrius caught sight of her, and attracted by her great beauty sought to make her his concubine or wife. When neither cajolery nor threats of punishment could succeed in moving her to yield to his desires, he had her brought before him in public trial atAntioch. Threatened with death unless she renounced the Christian faith, the holy virgin refused to adore the gods of the empire and an attempt was made to burn her, but the flames, we are told in her Acts, left her unhurt. She was then bound hand and foot and thrown into a cauldron of boiling water, but at her prayer her bonds were broken and she stood up uninjured. Finally the prefect ordered her to be beheaded.
The Greek Church honors her under the name Marine on 13 July; the Latin, as Margaret on 20 July. Her Acts place her death in the persecution of Diocletian (A.D. 303-5), but in fact even the century to which she belonged is uncertain. St. Margaret is represented in art sometimes as a shepherdess, or as leading a chained dragon, again carrying a little cross or a girdle in her hand, or standing by a large vessel which recalls the cauldron into which she was plunged. Relics said to belong to the saint are venerated in very many parts of Europe; at Rome, Montefiascone, Brusels, Bruges, Paris, Froidmont, Troyes, and various other places. Curiously enough this virgin has been widely venerated for many centuries as a special patron of women who are pregnant.http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/M/stmargaretofantioch.asp

TODAY´S GOSPEL

Matthew 12: 46 - 50

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46 While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him.

48 But he replied to the man who told him, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?"

49 And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers!

50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother."